The Child Abuse Council has been in existence since 1977, with the vision that "all children in our community will be raised in a safe, nurturing family environment.”

As times change, so does the way in which an organization needs to communicate its mission. For the Child Abuse Council, this meant incorporating the ideas of tech-savvy young professionals.

"Our organization has gone through important changes in the past year, and our young professional volunteers have led the way as advocates for change,” says Mark Mathews, Executive Director for the Child Abuse Council. "Several of our younger employees and volunteers presented new ideas on how to reach more of our target audience. We implemented their ideas, and it’s been incredibly successful for us.”

The Child Abuse Council is the Quad Cities’ only child abuse prevention agency dedicated to keeping children safe and building strong families with an emphasis on children aged zero to five years. They provide effective, holistic services by approaching child abuse prevention using a public health model that includes universal prevention through which the entire community is provided with education and support; secondary prevention through which families are engaged with targeted support to keep children safe; and tertiary prevention through which children and families are provided with resources they need to heal from trauma.

The Child Abuse Council is the recipient of the Next-Gen Engagement Award. Celebrate with them at the 2015 Community Impact Awards on Thursday, May 28.